[Masejoer]

I finally bought a L2 EVSE - the Duosida 16A unit. Ordered with 14-50 plug, plugged in, and car reports it is charging at 120V. Charge times seem to match for 120V set to 8A and 12A in the center console. My receptacle has 245V between the two legs, and proper ground/neutral on the center pins.

Sounds like the EVSE is wired wrong internally or faulty, and only delivering power from one leg. Sound right? Is there anything else that anyone can suggest I do to troubleshoot, without opening it up?

Waiting on customer support in the mean time...

 

[freshcut]

Double check how the plug is wired. It's possible they only hooked one hot, one neutral and one ground. There should only be 3 wires coming out of the unit to the plug, but the 14-50 plug has 4 pins. Make sure the red and black wires are connected to the two hot pins, and the yellow/green is connected to ground.

 

[Masejoer]

Double check how the plug is wired. It's possible they only hooked one hot, one neutral and one ground. There should only be 3 wires coming out of the unit to the plug, but the 14-50 plug has 4 pins. Make sure the red and black wires are connected to the two hot pins, and the yellow/green is connected to ground.

Yeah, I don't know if that's possible without tearing open the plug. I'm guessing it's wired up wrong on the plug end for 240V, or rather it's wired incorrectly at the EVSE housing end.

 

[freshcut]

The plug doesn't have screws to open it up? I bought mine with a 6-20 plug and it's just a standard screw together plug. If yours came from the vendor with a sealed plug, I would definitely return since you didn't get what you paid for, or at least not functioning as intended.

 

[Sean-a-Tron]

Have you charged your Volt on 220v before?

 

[Masejoer]

Yeah, this was a factory-direct purchase and plug isn't serviceable without buying replacement parts. I'm working with this "Ms Dream" person/group to get it resolved. I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning for the next response...

No, I've never used anything except the factory 120V charger. I've wished I had faster charging from time to time. At least I can feel comfortable charging at 12A now via the 14-50 until the issue is resolved - my entire-garage 120V 15A circuit shares another 1A or so with other devices, plus garage door opener.

 

[2VoltFamily]

Yeah, I don't know if that's possible without tearing open the plug. I'm guessing it's wired up wrong on the plug end for 240V, or rather it's wired incorrectly at the EVSE housing end.

If the plug is sealed then you will have to cut it off. If it has screws and you can open it up you will have to move the white wire. The EVSE is probably wired correctly, - that is Black-hot, Green-Ground, White-Neutral.

With the Duosida, the White wire can function as a neutral with the 120v 5-15 plug or a hot with a 3 wire 240v plug such as L6-30. With a 3 wire configuration for 240v there is not a neutral.

In your case, you have a 4 prong plug with a 3 wire cord connected to it. So one of the prongs is without a wire. Move the white wire inside the plug to the other prong. Look at a diagram to make sure but that should be the case. So your plug will end up with two hots(black and white) and one ground (green) and NO wire connected to the neutral prong.

 

[2VoltFamily]

Read the fine print on the side of the wire and report back what it says. Just want to confirm you have 3 wires.

 

[llninja]

If the plug is sealed then you will have to cut it off. If it has screws and you can open it up you will have to move the white wire. The EVSE is probably wired correctly, - that is Black-hot, Green-Ground, White-Neutral.

With the Duosida, the White wire can function as a neutral with the 120v 5-15 plug or a hot with a 3 wire 240v plug such as L6-30. With a 3 wire configuration for 240v there is not a neutral.

In your case, you have a 4 prong plug with a 3 wire cord connected to it. So one of the prongs is without a wire. Move the white wire inside the plug to the other prong. Look at a diagram to make sure but that should be the case. So your plug will end up with two hots(black and white) and one ground (green) and NO wire connected to the neutral prong.

Since masejoer had to ask, I think this is best left to the electrician and not a DIY attempt.

On the flip side, when Bosch sent their "master electrician" (air quotes used here) when he flipped on the breaker, there was a giant spark that charred my virgin drywall on the new house and popped the circuit breaker. I'm convinced he wasn't a very good electrician at all, just hasn't killed himself yet thus earning the master moniker. I would have wired it myself, but the state required it to be professionally installed in order to receive a 50% rebate. I probably could have saved 50% doing the electrical myself so it was a wash. But it did allow me to buy a bigger EVSE than I normally would have. Then again, the idiot put my 30A EVSE on a 30A breaker, so later after reading up on this forum, learned that I needed to dial back the EVSE to 24A to make sure I don't overload the circuit. He should have put in a 40A breaker. There's an orange piece of Romex from the breaker box to the EVSE, I'm guessing that's not good enough to run 40A through it, right?

 

[GSP]

Check the printing on the wire from your 30 A breaker to see what gauge it is. I think AWG#8 is good for 40 A.

GSP

 

[Sean-a-Tron]

an orange piece of Romex from the breaker box to the EVSE, I'm guessing that's not good enough to run 40A through it, right?

Orange is color code for 10 guage wire. That's limited to 30 amp. However, most breakers trip at 80% rated load, which is 24 amps. I'd definitely check the instruction book for the EVSE and see what circuit capacity it calls for. If it calls for 40amp or 8/3 wire, call your electrician back and have him redo it. Honestly I'd just install 6-3 if the distance from your box to EVSE is short. The extra capacity will allow for a much larger EVSE in the future. Otherwise 8/3 is perfectly fine for now.

 

[marcusm]

I bought 2 Duosidas but had them wired for regular 5-15 plug ends since they are dual voltage (like the oems). I got two of Chris Tx' adapters to use with them. The adapters are 3 prong going into the 4 slot 14-50 outlet. They work fine on 240 (and 120 if plugged in a standard 5-15 outlet). I don't know if that helps any, but I doubt there is any internal wiring problem inside the EVSE, but as someone else said maybe the plug end is wired wrong and could be fixed?


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[Phronesis]

Are you sure the outlet is correctly wired? Just trying to cover all the bases.

 

[2VoltFamily]

Since masejoer had to ask, I think this is best left to the electrician and not a DIY attempt.

On the flip side, when Bosch sent their "master electrician" (air quotes used here) when he flipped on the breaker, there was a giant spark that charred my virgin drywall on the new house and popped the circuit breaker. I'm convinced he wasn't a very good electrician at all, just hasn't killed himself yet thus earning the master moniker. I would have wired it myself, but the state required it to be professionally installed in order to receive a 50% rebate. I probably could have saved 50% doing the electrical myself so it was a wash. But it did allow me to buy a bigger EVSE than I normally would have. Then again, the idiot put my 30A EVSE on a 30A breaker, so later after reading up on this forum, learned that I needed to dial back the EVSE to 24A to make sure I don't overload the circuit. He should have put in a 40A breaker. There's an orange piece of Romex from the breaker box to the EVSE, I'm guessing that's not good enough to run 40A through it, right?

If you just have a Volt, then technically a 20A breaker would have been fine. The Gen 1 only draws 14A no matter what your EVSE is rated at. The breaker should be sized to protect the wire but can be lower than the maximum rated. In your case if you had a 20A breaker it would protect the wire and if it tripped frequently you would know you have a problem without damaging the EVSE.

 

[llninja]

If you just have a Volt, then technically a 20A breaker would have been fine. The Gen 1 only draws 14A no matter what your EVSE is rated at. The breaker should be sized to protect the wire but can be lower than the maximum rated. In your case if you had a 20A breaker it would protect the wire and if it tripped frequently you would know you have a problem without damaging the EVSE.

I know the volt will work fine, but I purchased a 30A EVSE to help futureproof my charging, and because of this idiot master electrician, I'll have to re-wire everything if I get a BEV. He was not worth the $600 on the invoice from Bosch.

 

[2VoltFamily]

I know the volt will work fine, but I purchased a 30A EVSE to help futureproof my charging, and because of this idiot master electrician, I'll have to re-wire everything if I get a BEV. He was not worth the $600 on the invoice from Bosch.

That is too bad. I wired my garage myself after advice at the local Home Depot. He gave me the proper wire for a new 40A circuit. The wire and breaker cost but the advice was free.

 

[llninja]

That is too bad. I wired my garage myself after advice at the local Home Depot. He gave me the proper wire for a new 40A circuit. The wire and breaker cost but the advice was free.

I am perfectly capable of wiring it myself, but the state required an electrician already registered with their program for the 50% rebate. The good news is that I don't have a new higher capacity EV on the way, so no need to change anything yet. The better news is that I have two big circuit breaker panels in my garage, so finding space in a panel for a bigger breaker won't be an issue at all.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I should have wired this myself, I should have held out for a discounted ELR instead of a Volt, and I should have gone all in maxing out my home equity line of credit on Apple stock during DotBomb.

 

[Masejoer]

Since masejoer had to ask, I think this is best left to the electrician and not a DIY attempt.

I could desolder and remove the wire and put a new one on, but that isn't what I paid for - discussing with the seller beforehand, I purchased it wired up to a 14-50 plug, and expect it to work that way from the factory. 14-50 isn't 120V after all - one would expect a single-Voltage use at 240V, and they knew I wanted to charge at 240V. Who knows how they'd try to void any "warranty" I get if I were to start changing parts on the EVSE.

Plug is sealed. There are three wires in the input side. One of the hots aren't hooked up - I have 120V, ground, and neutral wired into the plug, testing for continuity between both ends.

Still waiting to hear back from the seller. Typical useless reply that doesn't inspire any confidence that they'll get me the parts as ordered.

" I have already sent this information to our engineer and they are working on it. I will let you know as soon as receiving their reply. Thank you very much for understanding. "

Besides the plug not being wired as expected, the charger does work. I'm using it right now at 120V to keep the load off my garage circuit. I've already killed one 15A GFCI receptacle by charging the car at 12A (unrelated, just a quality issue on the original part)

 

[2VoltFamily]

I have two of the Duosidas. I ordered mine with the 120v 5-15 plug. But after receiving them I decided to replace the ends with a 3 wire 240v plug L6-30p. I felt it would be better to have a conversion cord go from the L6-30p to 5-15p than the other way around just in case someone ran across it and tried to use it for something else.

 

[marcusm]

I have two also but have the 5-15 ends on the adapter and 10 gauge 5-15 extensions locked away so no one can get at them. I wanted to be able to preserve their dual use on 120 just in case for the future.


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